Along Came Anansi
by tpt player 5701
Summary: A "Mind Game"-verse story: "I can't just go! No witnesses." Alya's blood ran cold at the man's tone of voice. "Marinette's going to kill me." Three things happened at once. Nino pulled the twins down behind the coffee table, crouching over them and putting himself and the table between them and the man. Alya dropped back a step and shouted, "Trixx–" The glass patio door shattered.
1. Chapter 1

_AN: This story takes place closer to the present, after "Tit for Tat." If you haven't read everything up to this point in the "Mind Games"-verse, I would encourage you to read my other MLB stories first._

_For those who need it, here's the quick synopsis of the "Mind Games"-verse to this point, at least as much as you need for this story: Hawk Moth was defeated, Adrien and Marinette are together, and the heroes mostly know each other's identities._

* * *

"I'm telling you, Alya, it's like this stupid manager is _trying_ to send me into a nervous breakdown!"

Alya patted Marinette's shoulder reassuringly as she took a sip of her tea. She would have felt worse for her friend's struggles at the fashion house if this hadn't become their regular weeknight routine: after she finished at her Agreste internship, Marinette would stop at Alya's apartment on her way home to have a cup of tea and complain about this M. Janet who seemed to have made it his mission in life to run her ragged.

"What did he do this time, girl?" Alya asked sympathetically, leaning back and helping herself to a scone, slipping a piece of it into her pocket for Trixx.

Marinette put her teacup down and grabbed her pigtails. "What _didn't_ he do?" she retorted. "First he asked why I was arriving at 3:30, even though he knows I have to race just to get there _that_ early! I swear, he thinks I should be able to work 40 hours for Agreste on top of school! Then he demanded to know where my design for the summer jacket is and wouldn't accept that I hadn't been assigned that project. He wanted to completely change the 'Flowers of Summer' theme that we decided on two months ago – even though that's not his call to make. And as if that's not enough, he screamed at an intern for spilling coffee on the floor – and the only reason she did it was because he was leering at her!"

"Why did Adrien hire this guy?" Alya wondered, shaking her head.

"He was the only one who would take the job," Marinette replied, grimacing. "Up until New Year's, remember, Agreste's reputation wasn't exactly the best. It's not like he had office manager candidates lining up around the block to try and help him resurrect the former Hawk Moth's dying company. Every other candidate the recruiting company found walked out of the interview the moment Adrien introduced himself."

"So you're stuck with him?"

"Not by choice!" Marinette retorted. "None of the interns feel comfortable being in the same room with him, even if he hasn't said or done anything overt. A couple of the full-time designers even quit rather than continue working in the same building as him. The only reason the design department is even holding together at the moment is because of our lead designer, Mme Legrand!"

"At least Adrien backs you up in all of this, right?" Alya consoled her, giving her a sympathetic look. "I mean, he'd be crazy _not_ to listen to you! After all, he looks at you like you're the only girl on the planet and his face lights up like the sun every time he's in the same room with you."

"I know." Marinette pulled her knees up to her chest on the couch. "Every time I say something about Janet, Adrien reminds me that _I_'m the future of the fashion house in his eyes, and Janet is only a temporary fix."

"Well," Alya began, smirking, "look at it this way girl. Adrien holds all the cards at Agreste right?" Marinette nodded, wide-eyed. "But who holds all the 'cards' with _Adrien_? So all you have to do is tell him you'll never kiss him again, or take away his pastries, or…" Alya quirked her eyebrows suggestively.

"Alya!" Marinette squealed, turning bright red.

Alya burst out laughing. "So maybe you _wouldn't_ do that last one," she joked.

"I wouldn't do _any_ of that to him!" Marinette retorted, burying her face in her hands. "And _what_ are you implying?"

Alya put an arm around her friend's shoulders. "You're one of the strongest people I know." Marinette gave her a look at that. "Considering that you got Chloe on your side _and_ you can keep Lila in her place, and all without the mask at that, some stuffed suit in the office shouldn't be any problem for you, girl."

"I suppose you're right," Marinette agreed, sighing, "as usual."

Alya was about to respond when the apartment door swung open and her father walked in. "Hi, kids! I'm home!" he called, shutting the door behind himself with his foot. He kicked off his muddy boots by the front door before walking into the living room where Alya and Marinette were sitting. "Alya! Just the one I was looking for! I need some help with something on the computer, and you're better on those things than I am!"

"Of course, Daddy," Alya replied, getting up from the couch. "What can I do?"

"I found this necklace at the zoo today," he explained, pulling something out of his pocket. The necklace pendant looked to be made of solid silver, cast in the shape of a paw print. The pendant hung from a worn brown leather strap.

"Pretty," Alya observed, fingering it. The silver felt ice-cold against her fingers. "What do you need me to do with it?"

"We just started a lost-and-found page on the zoo website," he answered. "I need to get a picture of the necklace uploaded on the page so the owner knows it was found and can retrieve it, but I've never had to do this before. Can you help me out?"

"Not a problem," Alya assured him, pulling out her phone and snapping a picture. She quickly used her computer to upload the picture to the zoo website alongside a brief description. "Where was it?" she asked while she typed.

"It was lying on the ground next to the gorilla cage," her father answered. "It looks like it might be valuable. Hopefully the owner notices and claims it. It was strange: the whole time I was holding the necklace, all the animals in the zoo were behaving unusually."

Alya fought back a blush at the mention of the gorilla habitat. Although her father knew that she and Nino had begun dating after he was Akumatized into Animan, he still didn't know that it had happened while they were locked into the gorilla cage! _Or_ that the person who had locked them in there together was currently sitting on the couch nursing a cup of tea! She and Nino still couldn't walk past that particular cage without giggling.

"Thanks, honey," her father said when she was finished, kissing her forehead. "I understand the animals, but I definitely do not understand all this new technology."

Alya glanced over at Marinette and grinned. "Are you and Mommy still planning to go out for dinner tonight?"

"Of course! We need to celebrate the hotel receiving such a high Michelin rating this year!" Her father's grin suddenly turned serious. "We're trusting you to look after the twins tonight, okay?"

"Absolutely," Alya agreed, nodding. "They won't be any trouble… especially now that Hawk Moth is gone!" she added for Marinette, who giggled.

"Excellent! We're counting on you."

"Can I ask a friend to come over and watch them with me?" Alya asked.

"Certainly," her father replied. "Who did you have in mind?"

"Marinette?" Alya turned to her best friend, who shook her head apologetically.

"Not tonight, sorry." Marinette quickly added, "I _would_, but my parents are expecting me for dinner soon, and Kagami got permission to come over for dinner, _and_ I have a lot of homework to catch up on tonight along with a commission to start for Kagami. I actually need to be leaving in a couple minutes."

Alya sighed. "That's okay. I'll call Nino."

* * *

A few hours later, Alya and Nino were curled up on the couch together watching a movie. Alya rested her head on Nino's shoulder, with his arm around her waist. They had just put the twins to bed, and Alya was just allowing her eyes to close when she heard quiet giggling.

"Are there a couple of naughty little monsters hiding behind the couch?" she called without opening her eyes.

"No!" The giggling intensified.

"That's good, because I'm a world-renowned monster hunter!" Alya shouted, springing up and popping her head over the back of the couch, just in time to watch Ella and Etta crawl underneath it. "I eat naughty monsters for breakfast!"

Alya climbed over the back of the couch and dropped to the floor, motioning for Nino to do the same in front of the couch. Alya poked her head underneath the couch at the same time Nino did, and they both shouted, "Boo!"

The twins giggled, rolling over on their backs and laughing. Alya and Nino each grabbed one of the twins, pulled them out from under the couch, and started tickling their stomachs. Alya picked up Ella and walked back around the couch to sit next to Nino, who held Etta.

"Alright, girls," she told them. "You can sit with us for 15 more minutes, but then it's off to bed with you!"

The twins giggled and curled up between Alya and Nino, who let out a silent chuckle. Alya smiled over at Nino affectionately and put her hand on top of his on the couch back. She turned back to watch the television and gave his hand a gentle squeeze.

Alya was just about to hit play to resume the movie when there was a tremendous banging on their front door. "Hang on, hang on," she called, pushing herself up from the couch and moving to the door. She looked through the peephole to see a scruffy man in a ratty old coat with wild, windswept hair. "What do you want?"

"Please… I'm sorry… I just… I need some help."

Alya felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. "Have you tried the police station? Maybe they can help you out."

"No – I – I need some money," he said, looking directly at the peephole.

"I'm sorry, but we can't help you," Alya told him firmly. She jiggled the handle to make sure the door was locked securely and backed away, pulling her cell phone from her pocket as she did so.

"You don't understand," the man shouted. "I _need_ it!"

Suddenly something slammed into the door. Alya stumbled backwards as it struck the door again and again. Her hands trembled as she tried to get to the emergency call screen and call the police. Before she could make the call, the door splintered and the man barged inside.

Alya backed up as fast as she could to where Nino and the twins were still sitting, frozen on the couch. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. Her mouth fell open and her eyes went wide. She could barely process what was happening.

The man stormed into the apartment, his eyes roaming around the room, taking everything in. He grabbed Alya's purse off a hook by the door, fumbled around inside it, and brought out her wallet. He found a pair of earrings her mother had left on a shelf the previous week, and stuffed those into his pockets. His eyes landed on the necklace her father had left on the counter, and he picked it up.

"What – what do you want from us?" Alya demanded. She clenched her fists so tightly her knuckles turned white, trying to keep her hands from shaking.

The man gave her a look of surprise. "No-no-no," he moaned. He smacked himself in the forehead. "No one was supposed to be here. Stupid! Stupid! I-I-I need–"

"You need what?" Alya retorted. She felt a low rumble emanating from where Trixx was curled up in her pocket, which helped ground her, and forced herself to take a calming breath. _You're a superhero; you can handle this._ She felt Nino grab one of her hands, and relaxed it slightly, opening her fist and waving him back. "Money? Food? Jewelry? Just take whatever you _need_ and leave us be!"

The man crossed to stand in front of the television. Alya turned to keep him in view. In her peripheral vision she could see Nino was now standing with the coffee table between himself and the man, holding the twins, one on either side of himself, hugging them tight to his sides. His mouth was twisted up in fear, which didn't quite reach his eyes. Alya caught him looking at her and quirked an eyebrow. He gave her the subtlest of nods back.

"Look, whatever you want, just take it and go!" Alya told him. She stepped back as he drew a butcher's knife from an inside coat pocket.

"You don't understand," he finally said. "I can't just go! 'No witnesses.'"

Alya's blood ran cold at the tone of his voice. There was no other way out of this. _Marinette's going to kill me._

Three things happened simultaneously. Nino spun around in a blur, kicked a foot up and knocked the coffee table up onto its side, and pulled the twins down behind the coffee table, crouching over them and putting himself and the table between them and the man.

Alya dropped back a step and shouted, "Trixx–"

The glass patio door shattered.


	2. Chapter 2

_To Speckleflower and anonymousfriend27: Don't have long to wait to find out what happens…_

_To Rose Tiger: That is the mystery…_

* * *

The transformation phrase died on Alya's lips as the glass patio door shattered to her right. On instinct she dove behind the coffee table beside Nino and the twins. Alya's heart pounded in her throat when something heavy landed inside the living room and let out a primal roar. Nino released one of the twins just long enough to pull Alya in close to himself.

Alya opened her eyes and looked through the glass coffee table to see the robber standing dumbly where he had been before, with the butcher knife still in his hand. Near the patio door stood another figure, this one wearing a dark-yellow padded bodysuit. The figure wore black sparring gloves on its hands and a dark-yellow helmet on its head with a black ski mask covering the entire face except for tiny eyeholes. Alya could see a black emblem on the figure's chest, though she couldn't make it out as the figure moved. Visitors had posted rumors on the Ladyblog of a new vigilante stalking the streets of Paris by night, but no one had provided an accurate description or even proof to confirm the vigilante's existence. At least until now. Alya mentally berated herself for dropping her phone when she dove to the floor.

The vigilante growled and lunged at the robber. The robber backed up a step. The knife shook in his grip. The vigilante spun around and kicked at the robber's head, but the robber ducked under the attack. He tried to counterattack, stabbing at the leg with his knife as it passed, but the vigilante moved quickly and immediately followed up the first kick with a second. The robber ducked to the side, only for the vigilante to punch him in the face. The robber fell backward into the entertainment center, and the television crashed down on his head.

Alya lifted her head to look over the coffee table and watched the vigilante kneel next to the robber's unconscious body and pick up something metallic from the floor. Then the vigilante looked over and met Alya's eyes before running to the patio door and disappearing over the railing into the night. The last impression Alya had was of vaguely-familiar golden eyes staring right at her.

"N-Nino?" Alya whispered, fumbling around to put a hand on his back.

"I'm okay, babe," he told her, keeping his voice calm and even. "Girls? Are you okay? You didn't get hurt did you?"

"No," chorused the twins. They started struggling against Nino's iron grip, and Alya reached down to pick the closest one – Etta – up, while Nino did the same with Ella.

"No, girls," Alya scolded them. "You could get hurt if we're not careful. There's broken glass all over the place and you have bare feet. We're going to put you in your bedroom, and you _have to stay there_, alright? Do not leave for _anything_! Do you understand me? And if the door opens, hide until you hear one of us, or Mommy and Daddy. Understood?"

"Yes, Alya," the twins chorused before breaking out into a fit of giggling.

Alya met Nino's gaze and rolled her eyes. _Leave it to the twins to find something _funny_ about an attempted robbery!_ She glanced over at the robber's prone form, unwilling to leave him alone while they took care of the twins, even if he did appear to be unconscious. As if sensing her conflict, Trixx flitted out of Alya's shirt pocket while the twins were distracted, at the same time that Wayzz appeared from his own hiding spot between the couch cushions. Alya glanced at the Kwamis, who both nodded in silent agreement and settled atop the entertainment center to keep watch. Trixx waved his hand in a circle, and the Kwamis vanished behind a Mirage.

Alya and Nino left the girls in the bedroom, shut and locked the door, and returned to deal with the unconscious robber. Alya knelt behind the upturned coffee table, looking for her phone. Nino put a hand on her shoulder, squatted next to her, and placed the phone in her hand. Her breathing hitched and she couldn't keep her hand from shaking as all the adrenaline left her system. Nino wrapped his arms around her and she leaned into his embrace, allowing the tears to flow freely. Trixx left Wayzz under the Mirage to continue watching the robber and settled on Alya's shoulder, nuzzling up to her cheek.

"We're okay, babe," Nino whispered, rubbing her back. "The girls are safe, you're safe, nothing's broken that can't be replaced."

"There's no way I'd let him hurt my kit!" Trixx squeaked, patting Alya's cheek.

Alya sobbed harder. "I just felt so… _powerless_," she mumbled. "He was going to kill us all, and–"

"And there's no way we were going to let that happen," Nino interrupted her, squeezing her tightly. "I was one second away from transforming and putting a Shell-ter over us all when that vigilante dude showed up."

"The vigilante interrupted my transformation phrase, too," Alya admitted, cupping her hand around Trixx. "In a way I'm glad. Marinette would have been so angry if I exposed my identity in front of _that_ guy." She nodded toward the robber for emphasis. "But I'm pretty sure if I _had_ transformed, we'd still have a television right now…"

"And there wouldn't be glass all over the floor," Nino agreed. "But it's no use crying over shattered glass, right, babe? Let's let the police take care of this nut. Then we can see about cleaning up the glass."

Alya's first phone call was to the police to report the attempted robbery. They agreed to send someone right away to arrest the robber and take statements. Her second phone call was to her mother.

"Mommy?"

"What is it, sweetie? Is everything okay?" Her voice immediately sounded anxious.

"Everyone is okay now," Alya began, "but there was a… incident tonight." She winced at hearing her mother's gasp. "Someone came to the apartment and I tried to stop him but he broke in and I tried to get him to leave but he wouldn't and there was this knife and then there was a vigilante and then everything went crazy and–"

"Slow down, slow down!" her mother said soothingly. "Have you called the police?"

"They're already on the way."

"The twins are okay? You and Nino are both unhurt?"

"Everyone is safe, and no one got hurt other than the robber."

"Then _calm down_. That must have been so scary for you! But I'm so proud of you for getting yourself and your sisters through that unharmed. We will be home as soon as we pay the check. I love you."

"I love you, too, Mommy."

Alya hung up to see Lieutenant Raincomprix standing in the doorway with a pair of officers, looking at the broken door with an expression of shock on his face. The Kwamis both hid, and Alya gave a resigned sigh and waved for them to come in. "The robber is under the television," she called. "This is going to be a long night," she muttered to Nino, who nodded ruefully.

* * *

Once Lieutenant Raincomprix had left with the prisoner, a crime scene specialist had to come and take photographs for evidence. By that time Alya's parents had returned home from the restaurant. They hugged each of them in turn and checked on the twins before the officers insisted on taking statements from both Alya and Nino about the incident. Her mother went into the bedroom to stay with the twins while her father sat with them while they gave their statements. As Nino was finishing up his statement, Alya slipped into the bedroom to help her mother with the twins.

Lieutenant Raincomprix returned as the interviewers were leaving, bringing with him a couple of cardboard boxes, which he broke down and then helped Alya's father and Nino to tape up over the smashed patio door. Then he ushered all of them out of the apartment before putting crime scene tape over the open front door.

Nino wrapped his arm around Alya protectively, and she squeezed him back tightly.

"Officer – Roger," her father asked as Lieutenant Raincomprix led them down the stairs, "where are we going to stay for the night?"

"It's already been arranged," he answered over his shoulder. "The Mayor called before I even finished booking the perp and insisted that you stay at the hotel tonight. Don't ask me how he knew; I only just got the call when I got home and had to run out on Sabrina!"

Alya glanced up at Nino and mouthed, "Chloe."

He grinned back at her and shrugged. Then he leaned close to her ear and whispered, "The vigilante was still out there while we covered the door." Alya gave him a questioning look, and he continued, "Roof across the street. Probably been watching this whole time. Might even still be there."

Alya turned to her mother. "Can I make a quick stop at Marinette's before meeting everyone at the hotel?"

"Of course, sweetie. Just don't take too long."

Nino squeezed her hand reassuringly and looked over at her family before returning his eyes to her. Alya smiled at him and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Then she dashed down the stairs ahead of them and into the night.

* * *

"So you finally decided to show up, eh, hero?" The vigilante sat on the edge of the roof, legs dangling off the side, looking over at the apartment building, and didn't turn around as Rena Rouge clambered up on the opposite side of the building.

"I was busy," Rena Rouge answered, folding her arms. "This was the soonest I could get away."

"Yeah, that's the problem with you heroes, Foxy: you're unreliable," the vigilante retorted, standing up and turning to face her. "People start to rely on you, but you're not always there, are you? And when you and your pals take forever to show up, people tend to get hurt."

"It's not _my_ fault I couldn't get here sooner! At least we don't cause as much damage as the bad guys," Rena Rouge replied, gritting her teeth. "But what about you tonight? You smashed through a glass door! With all that shattered glass on the floor, it's amazing one of those little girls didn't cut her foot! You could have hurt them!"

The vigilante growled and charged. Rena Rouge regretfully dropped into a crouch, tightening her grip on her flute. This wasn't how she'd wanted the conversation to go. The vigilante jumped and let loose a flurry of jabs at Rena Rouge's face on the way down. Rena Rouge raised her flute to protect one side of her face, using her arm to protect the other side.

"And if I hadn't showed up when I did, what would have happened then?" the vigilante demanded heatedly. "_You_ weren't there to protect them! I had to do something!" she shouted, kicking at Rena Rouge's stomach.

Rena Rouge dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the kick. She sprang up to the vigilante's side and swung her flute at the vigilante's head, striking the helmet. The vigilante shook off the blow, turned, and growled before spinning around into a high kick at Rena Rouge's chest. Rena Rouge ducked under the kick and swept the vigilante's other leg out. The vigilante fell to the ground heavily and groaned.

"You could have hurt them just as easily as that lunatic would have!" Rena Rouge shouted, squeezing her fists tightly.

The vigilante grunted and kipped to her feet. "I couldn't just do nothing! That man was going to kill my _sisters_!"

Rena Rouge's jaw dropped. She looked closer at the vigilante: the size, the posture, the insignia that was finally visible in the reflected light from below. Her flute fell from her hands to clatter on the roof. "Anansi… Nora?" she whispered, staring at the insignia.

The vigilante paused mid-punch, her arms dropping to her sides. "How… how do you know my name?"

"Do you really think I'm that irresponsible? That I would _ever_ have let that madman hurt the twins?"

"Wait… who _are_ you?"

"Trixx, Let's rest."

Anansi's eyes bulged. "Alya? _Baby sister?_"


	3. Chapter 3

_AN: In case there's any confusion, secret identities in the "Mind Games"-verse haven't really been an issue (among the heroes, at least) since "Milady." Criminals or civilians finding out is still a bad thing, but Alya is free to tell her vigilante sister _exactly_ why Rena Rouge wasn't there yet when Anansi crashed the party!_

_To The Keeper of Worlds: Yeah, Anansi is really good at losing her $#!7… Let's just say you haven't seen anything yet!_

* * *

"It started on Heroes' Day. You heroes were all so busy trying to stop the horde of Akumatized people that the rest of the city was falling into chaos."

"I remember seeing you on the streets that day," Alya nodded. The two of them were sitting on the same roof edge where Anansi had sat to wait for the police response, their feet dangling over the side. Nora had removed her helmet; it lay behind where they were sitting. "The news footage after the fact was all over your stand at the barricade – very June Rebellion, by the way – helping Ladybug and Cat Noir when the rest of us got Akumatized. You were amazing, bringing together ordinary people to fight back against Hawk Moth, and with no powers, too."

"Thanks, sis," Nora said. She grinned. "Now I know you're Rena Rouge, I suppose I should be telling you how incredible _you_ are. On Heroes' Day you nearly caught Hawk Moth; last summer you actually did. I saw the news report on that time you and Multiplice foiled a bank robbery last month. You've done some good work out there."

"Thanks," Alya told her, blushing slightly.

"But now you have to tell me: where are Mom, Dad, and the twins? Did you just leave them?"

Alya scoffed. "Please, sis, give us a _little_ more credit than that," she retorted. She nodded across the street to where she could just make out Ladybug and Ryoku racing across the rooftops. "They're safe. They're on their way to Le Grand Paris, and as you can see at least two of the other heroes are going to shadow them. Then when they get there they'll literally be under Queen Bee's protection, just a few floors below her penthouse. I wouldn't have left them to meet you if I didn't know our family was safe."

"I'm glad to hear it. You have no idea how scared I was when I saw that lunatic break down the door.

"I really don't have a problem with you heroes as heroes," Nora went on. Alya looked at her in surprise. "I don't. You have done some impressive things, especially stopping Moth Man – no way _I_ could have done that! You have these special abilities and you use them to help so many people. My problem is when people start relying on you for everything. There are only so many of you – sure, more now than even last summer, but Paris is a big city. And just because the Moth is gone doesn't mean the city's safe. So often you heroes arrive too late to do anything. By the time you get to the kidnapping, the victim's in the car and you have to chase them to catch up. By the time you get to the fire, the building's engulfed. Remember that charity fashion show last month? Of course you do; you were there. There were three – no, four! – of you there, and the robbers still nearly got away. When people rely on you for everything, too often it's too little, too late."

Alya snorted. _If you only knew that there were actually _seven_ of us at the fashion show…_ "So what are you doing, then?" Alya asked, trying to keep her voice level and without accusation. "What makes you so different from us?"

"After Heroes' Day I did try doing the same thing you've been doing: patrol the streets by night and stop crimes when I see them," Nora answered. She laughed derisively. "There wasn't much I could do: just one woman in a city of millions, my only superpowers being the ones Mom gave me. Eventually I realized I was going about it all wrong. There was a lot more I could be doing. A few months back I was in a sports bar when I heard a drunk telling his buddy that they should jump a woman who'd had a couple of drinks and was just about to leave, and then rape her. The drunks got up to leave, and I followed. They trailed the woman for about a block, and one picked up a discarded pipe. I attacked them and knocked them out cold, and their target never knew what could have happened."

Nora grinned. "That's when I realized I could do more by finding the criminals and stopping them in their tracks. I started paying more attention to the bookies and loan sharks at my matches and found where they hang out. That hangout led to another hangout, and before I knew it I had a pretty good map of all the dive bars and back alleys and warehouses in Paris where the bad guys hang out. So one thing led to another, and Anansi became a real-life, honest-to-goodness vigilante, stopping the criminals before they could even strike, instead of just another kick boxer."

"So is that how you came to be here tonight?" Alya asked. "You were following that guy and got lucky?"

Nora nodded. "If you want to call that _luck_… I've been staking out a drug corner downtown for a few weeks now, and your friend showed up looking strung out. He went up to the dealer, but instead of making the sale, the dealer sent him to a car down the block. The car gave him a package that did _not_ look like drugs, and he left. I followed him to Mom and Dad's apartment building, and you know the rest."

Alya felt sick. "Any idea why he came after us? Was it because of me?"

"I don't know," Nora told her, frustration bleeding into her voice. She gripped the eaves of the roof so tight her knuckles turned white. "But I know a couple drug dealers who are going to tell me. Cuz otherwise they're gonna be getting all their meals through a straw for the next _year_ after putting my baby sisters in danger!"

"So this is what you've been up to lately?" Alya asked, raising an eyebrow. "All this time I thought you were just busy with work and that's why I was babysitting the twins all the time!"

"I _have_ been busy with work," Nora replied. She turned to Alya and leaned in conspiratorially. "I've uncovered something big."

"Does it have anything to do with that metal object you took off the junkie tonight?" Ala asked pointedly.

"Nothing gets past you, huh, little sis? You're gunning to be a superhero _and_ an ace reporter!" Nora reached into a pouch on her belt which started to rattle before she pulled out something long and slender.

"What is it?" asked Alya as Nora dropped it into her hand.

"It's a lynchpin. They started appearing a couple months ago, but they've been showing up all over the place lately. I think it's supposed to be a calling card of some sort."

Alya rolled the pin around in her hand, watching it glint in the light from the streetlamps below them. "Do you know anything about it?" she asked, looking back up at Nora.

"Not much," she told her, shaking her head. "I've got a good collection now, though. I picked up some of them from robbers like that junkie tonight. One was dropped by a hit-man who was trying to assassinate some police officer. A couple came from purse snatchers. There was even a money launderer who admitted to receiving one. I stumbled onto of all things a fashion counterfeiting operation that was making knock-offs of a dress your friend with the pigtails designed, and the boss man there dropped a lynchpin as he was running away from me and screaming. None of them could tell me anything about them – not where they came from or what they meant or if there was any real significance. A couple of them had received emails, but the addresses were all anonymous burners. A couple had received phone calls from blocked numbers, but that proved to be a dead end, too."

"You know, we have a lot of resources on our side," Alya informed her. "If you give me what you have, I have a friend who might be able to put a name to those email addresses and phone numbers."

"No way, sis," Nora said adamantly. "This is my investigation, and I need to see it through. I know the places. I know the players. Now I just need to follow them back to the source."

"The 'lynchpin,' if you will?"

"Yeah, I guess that must be what these things mean," Nora agreed. She pulled another one out of the pouch on her belt, twirling it around her fingers contemplatively. "Whoever's behind this definitely has some style. And they're not afraid to let someone else do their dirty work."

"Any idea what they're involved with?"

"That's the thing, sis," Nora replied. "The best I can tell, they're involved with _everything_. I don't think there's been a single criminal activity in the _city_ in the last few months that didn't tie back to these stupid lynchpins in some way. You know that bank robbery you stopped last month?"

"Yeah…"

"I was actually there. I watched them go in, an instant before you arrived," Nora told her. "I watched you stop them, and then I followed their getaway driver back to the hideout. He was only inside for a matter of moments before I followed him in, but by the time I entered the hideout was completely deserted. And they'd left a lynchpin sitting on the folding table in the middle of the room."

"This – this is huge, sis," Alya said, eyes wide. "You're talking about a massive conspiracy here! You _have_ to let me talk to the other Heroes about this. We have to get the word out!"

"If you mean that blog of yours, there's no way you can put any of this on the Ladyblog!" Nora warned. She suddenly narrowed her eyes at Alya. "You're not going to put _me_ on the Ladyblog, are you?"

Alya laughed. "I definitely have to report on the robbery," she said. She held her and up to forestall the retort she saw Nora opening her mouth to make. "It would be suspicious if I didn't, after it happened at my own apartment while I was there. And that the robbery was stopped by the new vigilante in town – conspiracy theory confirmed! But…" she ran a hand through her hair in mock-embarrassment "I didn't exactly get a good look at the vigilante, and I was hiding behind a table… so I couldn't tell you what the vigilante looks like – unless you _want_ to let me break that story tonight?"

Nora shook her head. "I need to keep as low a profile as I can for now. Thanks, sis." She suddenly stopped and fixed Alya with a suspicious look. "You're the Ladyblogger, _and_ you're Rena Rouge… is the rumor true that you heroes all know each other's identities now?"

"Only partly," Alya answered, grinning. "I know most of them, but I don't know all Ladybug's newest recruits."

"Girl, you are diabolical!" Nora leaned back and laughed. "I was wondering why your identity speculation stories started shifting after last summer. And then you front-paged that conspiracy nut's theory about Ladybug being one of Jagged Stone's backup dancers last month when she was obviously off her rocker. So you've been using the Ladyblog to _hide_ her identity this year, _not_ to discover it!"

Alya shrugged. "What can I say? My girl trusts me, and I would never betray that trust."

"Okay, I'm convinced. But you still can't say anything about the Lynchpin Conspiracy on there," Nora warned her again. "Best case scenario, you get branded a crackpot conspiracy nut; worst case, you _actually_ paint a target on your back and get our whole family killed."

"Fine," Alya told her, "but can I at least talk to Ladybug and Cat Noir? They're literally my best friends in the world; there's no one I trust more with this. Please, let us help you, sis."

"Sorry," Nora responded seriously. "I can't have a whole bunch of you colorful heroes going around looking all suspicious and getting in my way while I'm trying to find clues to this Lynchpin character. But… if I need help, I'll give you a call."

* * *

_The fashion show is a reference to "Tit for Tat," when Queen Bee, Impératrice Pourpre (Sabrina as the new Butterfly Miraculous holder), and the Owl were there with Jagged Stone as "celebrity judges" (to go with the show's "Heroes of Paris" theme). Alya, Nino, Marinette, and Adrien were also there as civilians but unable to intervene. The sequel to this story (which should be ready to publish as soon as this one is done next week) will also connect to "Tit for Tat," so I'd encourage going back to read that story if you haven't._


	4. Chapter 4

_To anonymousfriend27: We shall see…_

_To The Keeper of Worlds: Oh, this story is going to have plenty of scale! The lynchpin first appeared at the end of "Tit for Tat."_

* * *

When Nino knocked on the door to the Césaires' hotel suite the next morning before school, he wasn't sure what to expect. However, it certainly was not that Alya would open the door for him and usher him over to where Sabrina and Chloe were sitting on the floor and playing superheroes with the twins.

After they had arrived at the hotel the previous night, Alya's parents had insisted on giving him bone-crushing hugs and thanking him profusely for keeping the girls safe. He had at last said his goodbyes to them when he'd noticed Chloe lounging in the far corner of the lobby, pretending to be engrossed in her phone. Then he'd stepped outside and glanced up at Ladybug and Ryoku, who had been watching from a rooftop across the street. Marinette had sounded close to panic when he called her before getting in the car; she had insisted on coming personally to make sure everyone was safe, even after he'd assured her he had it under control. Only then had he been able to go home and try to sleep off some of the anxiety and adrenaline from the night.

Nino wrapped his arms around Alya tightly and felt her melt into the embrace. "How did you sleep last night?" he whispered.

"I didn't," she admitted. "It was late when I got here, and when I finally got in bed I just kept thinking about what could have happened. I keep replaying it in my mind, trying to figure out if maybe there was something I could have done differently or better."

"Shh," he soothed. "You're safe. The twins are safe. Everyone is safe – though you might need to rescue Sabrina!"

Alya smiled down at the floor where Etta had a Rena Rouge action figure stuck in Sabrina's hair. Sabrina was calmly untangling the hair from around Rena Rouge's tail, while Etta pretended to make flute sounds. Alya looked back at him and asked, "Have you asked yourself why yet? Why us?"

Nino furrowed his brow. He hadn't even considered whether there was a reason behind the robbery. He sat down on the couch and pulled her down to sit next to him. "No, I just figured it was something random. The dude was obviously high on something, and wound up in your apartment building. Not normal, but not completely outlandish. Why? You think there was a reason?"

"I'm waiting for a text."

"From?" he prompted.

"The vigilante," Alya answered. She groaned in frustration. "She said she would go crack some skulls last night and get us some answers. But she still hasn't texted me back yet!"

"Maybe she flaked off," Nino suggested. "I mean, you only met her last night. Why would she help Rena Rouge with something like this?"

"She's not like that," Alya insisted. "She knows how important this is! She wouldn't just leave me hanging like–" Alya cut off as her phone vibrated. "Yes?" she demanded, the moment she had answered the call.

"Okay. And you're _sure_? No connection whatsoever? Thanks a million, A." Alya hung up the phone and breathed a sigh of relief. "They weren't targeting _me_," she told Nino. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Chloe lean in slightly from the other side of the room to listen. "It had something to do with Daddy and the zoo. My identity's safe."

Chloe set Ella on the floor next to Sabrina, pushed herself up, and came over to sit on the couch next to them. "That's a relief," she told them, letting out a breath. "As fun as it is to let your sisters pull my hair, it's nice to know we don't have to keep playing guard duty. Your family is welcome to stay at the hotel as long as you like, of course."

"Thanks. But I still wish I had some idea _why_." Alya frowned.

"All you have to go on is the zoo?" Nino asked.

"That's all the vigilante said. She was going to go back tonight to find the person who ordered it, but that's what she got from the drug dealer who helped set it up."

"So maybe we can find something at the zoo after school today," Nino suggested.

"Chloe, could you and Sabrina–?"

"Babysit your sisters?"

"I'd ask Marinette, but she has her internship, and…"

Chloe threw her hands in the air. "Ugh, fine, but you owe me big time for this!"

* * *

After school, Nino and Alya went over to the zoo, where Alya immediately dragged Nino to the office to find her father. Unfortunately, he was busy and they couldn't talk to him at that moment.

"Of course, it's not like he isn't _usually_ busy here," Alya grumbled as she led Nino deeper into the zoo, past the exhibits for large predators.

Nino tugged on her hand to stop her in front of the aviary. "Relax, babe," he told her, pulling her down to sit next to him on a park bench. "You're an investigative reporter, right? So let's investigate. Your witness isn't available, so what other clues do you have?"

Alya pulled out a notepad and pen and started writing. "Daddy usually works with the bigger animals, though he has worked with all of them. We should probably start with the bigger ones. He mentioned the gorillas yesterday; let's go there first."

"Awesome!" Nino grinned. "That's my favorite exhibit here!"

Alya rolled her eyes and smiled affectionately. "You're a goof, you know that?"

"Maybe," he replied, throwing an arm over her shoulders. "But I'm your goof!"

When they arrived, Nino looked up at the gorilla exhibit to see the gorilla staring back down at him a few meters from the cage bars. There was a small group of young families standing against the railing while their children stared up at the gorilla. Off to the side an older couple walked past the exhibit without sparing it more than a passing glance. Alya slid Nino's arm off her shoulder and walked closer, while Nino leaned against the fence opposite the cage. He watched Alya walk up to the railing and read the signs before looking down at the ground underneath the railings. She leaned over the railing as far as she could to examine more of the cage interior; Nino leaned forward on seeing that.

As he waited, Nino idly wondered what Alya saw in the cage that piqued her interest so much. As far as he could tell, the cage looked no different than it had when Ladybug – Marinette! – had locked them inside it while she and Cat Noir – Adrien! – sorted out Alya's Akumatized father. But Alya was poring over every inch of the cage and its surroundings as though it might contain the ultimate secrets of the universe.

Suddenly Alya slapped herself on the forehead, pulled out her phone, and ran over to him. "How could I have forgotten?" she panted when she reached him, bending over with her hands on her knees and gasping for breath while searching on her phone.

Nino put a hand on her back. "What did you forget?"

"The necklace."

"Necklace?"

"The one Daddy brought home from the zoo so I could help him put a photo on the zoo website," she explained, straightening up, pushing her hair back from her eyes, and striding toward the exit sign. "He said the animals all started acting strange whenever he went near them with it. And one of the things that guy grabbed was that necklace! We need to go."

Nino jogged to keep up with Alya, who was already making a phone call. "Hey, it's me. Can you ask your father to let me take a look at the evidence from last night? … I know it's unusual, but I've got a lead and I need to check it out… Listen, I.P., I could get Pegasus to call in a favor, but I'd rather keep the Hero connection to last night quiet… Thanks a million, text me as soon as you can."

"Sabrina?" Nino asked as soon as she'd disconnected the call. "Did you really have to tell her you know she's Impératrice Pourpre? She could figure us out from that."

"I had to," Alya told him heatedly. "This is my _family_ we're talking about here. They could have hurt my _sisters_ last night! Just because they don't know who I am doesn't mean they're going to leave us alone. And if that necklace is what I think it is, they could try again!"

"Care to let me in on the secret? What do you think it is?"

Alya held her phone up to his nose, so close he had to lean back to read it clearly. He saw that she had pulled up a website called "Myths, Mystics, and Magic." The bookmarks on the sidebar showed dozens of categories of mythical artifacts from all across the globe. "What are you doing looking at a crackpot conspiracy site like this?" he asked her incredulously.

"It has a whole section full of speculation about Miraculous. I found it after Ladybug first showed up when I was trying to learn everything I could about her, even the wildly insane theories. Just read it," she urged him, grabbing his other hand and dragging him toward the exit.

The page she had pulled up showed a silver paw print hanging from a leather strap. Looking at the title of the page, he read, "Mkufu wa Wanyama: The Necklace of Animals." Nino looked up at Alya in confusion. "What is this?"

"The best I can tell," Alya replied, "it's a necklace that can give the wearer the ability to communicate with animals."

"That sounds a lot like a miraculous. Do you mean to say we had a miraculous sitting on the table and someone tried to steal it from us and we didn't know it?" Nino demanded.

"No." Alya shook her head. "It's not a miraculous. Not all magic – _if_ it exists, that is – comes directly from Kwamis. This necklace, supposedly, was blessed by some ancient African shaman. 'MMM' never confirmed its existence, but look at this." She switched windows and showed him the zoo lost and found page. "See? It's the exact same necklace."

"It _looks like_ the same necklace," Nino objected. "We don't know for sure that it really _is_."

"Considering how the animals reacted, though, there's got to be some truth to this, right?"

"Maybe," he conceded, "but what are we going to do about it?"

Alya led the way out of the park and turned toward the police station. "That's where Sabrina comes in," she called behind her. "We need to take a look at the necklace, and it's in a police evidence locker right now. Hopefully her father can let us take a look at it."

Alya's phone vibrated with a text just as they were climbing the stairs to the police station. She nodded and typed a quick reply before grabbing Nino's hand and pushing the door open.

Lieutenant Raincomprix met them in the entryway and gestured for them to follow him down the hallway. "How are you kids doing after last night?" he asked, fixing them with an evaluating stare. "I'm sorry I don't have anything more to tell you today. The perp hasn't said a word since he woke up."

"We're doing a lot better now than we were last night," Alya told him. "We're actually not here for information on the break-in, though. Did Sabrina explain why we came?"

"All she said was that you want to look at some of the evidence we collected from your house," he replied, giving them a look. "I hope you understand just how irregular this is," he added, removing his hat and rubbing the back of his head. "I could lose my job if anyone finds out I let a couple of kids handle the evidence."

"I understand," Alya answered. "We don't want to remove anything, and you will be there the whole time. And if I'm right, we'll know why your perp broke in."

Lieutenant Raincomprix ushered them into his office. "I wouldn't have told Sabrina it was okay if I wasn't going to let you see it," he assured them, shutting the door. He gestured to the box sitting on his desk. "Which piece of evidence is it?"

Without answering him, Alya started rummaging through the box, and Nino went over to help. A moment later, Alya let out a triumphant yell and pulled out a bag holding a silver necklace. She held it tightly in her hand and shut her eyes, furrowing her brow. Nino could hardly breathe as he watched her concentrate on the necklace. When he couldn't stand the tension anymore, he nudged her and asked, "Anything?"

"Nothing," she said, with a frustrated groan.

"Could your, um, _necklace_ be interfering with it?"

She shook her head. "I don't think so."

Nino took the necklace from her and held it up to his eyes. It certainly looked the same as the one in the picture, but – "Can I see your phone again?" he asked.

Alya opened her phone to the picture of the necklace. "Why? What do you see?"

"Something looks different, but I can't put my finger on it," Nino muttered, looking back and forth from the picture to the necklace in his hand.

Alya suddenly gasped, snatched the necklace and phone out of his hands, and took a picture of the necklace. "It's the strap," she told him, holding the phone up and flipping between the two photos. "The leather is a slightly different color. I thought it was the lighting at first, but it definitely isn't. You can tell from the pictures. Someone must have swapped the real one out for a fake."

"Wait, are you saying that someone replaced the evidence with a forgery?" Lieutenant Raincomprix asked, eyes widening in shock. "But this box has been in the evidence lock-up since it arrived last night. I was the first one to sign it out!"

"So it must have been switched out before it arrived at the station," Alya said. "Unless someone in Evidence switched it out today without anyone noticing."

"But if that's the case," Nino objected, "that would mean–"

Alya finished the sentence for him. "They have someone in the police."

* * *

"_Mkufu wa Wanyama" is Swahili for "Animal Necklace" or "Necklace of Animals." Or at least that's what Google Translate says… If that's a poor translation, let me know._


	5. Chapter 5

_To Speckleflower: I wasn't sure how "touchy-feely" Alya and Nino should be, but I figured that after the night they'd had, they would be a lot more expressive toward each other! Writing their relationship in this story was pretty fun._

_To The Keeper of Worlds: Not exactly "begins"… Remember Jagged Stone's necklace in "Tit for Tat"?_

* * *

Anansi lay prone on a rooftop underneath a ratty old gray blanket, her "uniform" covered by nondescript track pants and a sweatshirt. She slowly lifted the binoculars to her eyes, carefully shading them against the last rays of the setting sun to her right. From this vantage point she could see three different drug corners run by – as far as she could tell – two different gangs. They seemed to have an uneasy truce at the moment, but a few weeks back she'd witnessed an ugly confrontation between two of the dealers that nearly turned violent. She'd almost been disappointed when a car pulled up, some words were said, and the dealers huffed off to their own corners. Despite her concern for the innocent people living on the block, less dealers and druggies in the neighborhood would _have_ to be a good thing, right?

Tonight, however, she wasn't interested in the dealers themselves; she was interested in one car: the runner's car that had sent a strung-out druggie to rob and murder her sisters. Anansi slowly turned her head to follow a dark brown sedan as it approached the corner in front of her. As it passed her roof, she checked the license plate through her binoculars. Not the same car. The dealer's money guy walked up to the car and reached through the open window. Then the drug guy walked over and did the same. The car pulled away and drove off. Anansi let out a breath.

Another dark brown sedan pulled up and flashed its headlights in the dusky gloom. The dealer walked over to the car as Anansi checked the license plate. It matched. She slowly crawled backward away from the roof's edge, rolling the blanket into a ball and hiding it under a pile of trash with her binoculars before drawing herself up into a low crouch. She had placed the backpack holding her gloves and helmet right next to her left hand, and she grabbed it and slipped an arm through the strap while still keeping her eyes fixed on the car. Based on her previous observations, the car would continue along this street before turning right at the end of the block, so she started walking that direction, careful to stay away from the edge and low enough to avoid being seen from the ground. When she reached the end of that roof she risked another careful look down at the corner.

The sedan was just pulling away from the corner as the dealer returned to his stoop. Anansi stood still, watching the car drive to the corner where she stood before turning in her direction. The car slowly accelerated toward the end of the block, and she raced to keep pace with it. The roof she was standing on ended, and she leapt to the next one without slowing her pace. The car had reached the end of the block and continued on, and Anansi threw caution to the wind, racing along the rooftops to keep the car in view.

When she reached the end of the block, Anansi clambered down a fire escape on the side of the building and into the alley as quickly as she could. She slipped out of the alley and blended into the street traffic of locals returning home from work and shopping, pulling a baseball hat out of her backpack and lowering the brim to cover her eyes. The car turned left several blocks ahead, and Anansi ran across the street and raced down the next street that ran parallel to the one the car was on. She knew that a few streets up there was another drug corner where the car might stop for another pickup, which could give her a chance to catch up. Sure enough, when she finally drew parallel to that corner, she could see the sedan idling at the corner while the passenger talked to the dealer. Anansi calmly walked up the street toward the corner, still blending in with the foot traffic.

She'd cut the number of streets separating them in half when the car pulled away and turned directly toward her. Anansi kept her eyes pointing forward, avoiding looking directly at the car, until it reached the street in front of her and turned. She walked to the end of the block and looked down the street where the car had turned, to see the car stopping in front of a warehouse.

There wasn't any other traffic on that street, so Anansi continued past it, ducked into the next alley, and followed it to the warehouse yard. With a glance in either direction, she walked across the yard, toward the warehouse. She wasn't too worried they would shoot her if they saw her; if, as she suspected, they stored their drugs at this warehouse, they would be more likely to try to capture her and find out what she knew. And that would give her an advantage.

No one confronted her in the yard, and she was sure they hadn't spotted her yet when she reached the warehouse wall and carefully looked through one of the windows. Inside she could see a man in a white suit shaking his fist at a group of tough-looking men. She didn't recognize the man in the suit, but a couple of the men in the crowd looked like enforcers she had observed at the drug corners. _Looks like they're not getting away this time_.

Anansi dropped to a crouch and pulled off her disguise. The workout pants, sweatshirt, and hat went into her backpack to replace the gloves and helmet, which she put on. After a quick swig of water to calm her nerves, she hid the backpack behind a barrel. Then it was time.

A side door slid open without more than a squeak, and Anansi slipped inside. Down the hallway she found a couple of guards leaning against the walls and not paying close enough attention. She grabbed one from behind, wrapping her arm around his head and covering his mouth, at the same moment that she struck the other in the throat with the edge of her palm. That one slumped against the wall, clutching his throat, as she punched the first in the head twice in quick succession, knocking him out cold. She carefully guided both guards' unconscious bodies to the ground and continued past them. At the end of the hallway she found herself standing in the shadow cast by the bright overhead lights in the main room and listening as the man in white harangued his men.

"–You're lucky that junkie didn't know anything! Considering the cops have him, we could have had a serious problem if he talked! As it is, it's only dumb luck you didn't blow it entirely! If you _had_… let's just say he wouldn't have been too happy – with any of us!"

White Suit muttered something under his breath that Anansi didn't catch before he turned and stomped off toward an SUV on the other side of the building.

_Now or never_.

Anansi glanced around for anything close at hand to create a distraction. She spotted a small piece of piping, no more than a few centimeters in length, lying on the floor where a workman must have cut a pipe down to size while repairing the plumbing. She grabbed the pipe segment and threw it as hard as she could across the room, where it clanged on the concrete floor and bounced into a stack of rebar that fell over and scattered like pick-up sticks. Everyone in the building stopped moving and turned to face the ruckus.

Anansi ran out from the hallway where she had been hiding, moving as silently as she could. She reached the closest group of thugs and punched the first one in the back of the head, knocking him to the floor, before they noticed her presence. Anansi was in the middle of the crowd before more than a handful had a chance to react. She ducked low to avoid a punch and lashed out with punches of her own, catching a couple thugs in the gut. One moved in close, and she put one hand on the floor to give herself leverage for a kick to his collarbone. That one fell backward and collapsed on top of a pair of his companions, to be replaced by another thug. Anansi returned to her feet and settled into her boxing stance. She had to get past the foot soldiers and reach their boss before he could escape.

Across the building she could just make out the SUV door opening and the man in white climbing into the back before she had to dodge a blow aimed at her chest. She spun around and kicked her attacker in the side, bowling him over into another thug, as the SUV's engine started. Anansi let out a frustrated groan when the SUV pulled out of the warehouse and disappeared into the night.

The thugs pressed together between her and the door through which the SUV had disappeared, and she fell back toward the rear of the building. Anansi felt arms grab her from behind, pinning her arms to her sides. She used the pin as leverage, swung her legs up, and kicked the thugs standing closest to her. As her legs came down she bent forward into a crouch, pulling the man pinning her arms off balance with a yelp, and fell into a forward roll, flipping him over her head, landing on top of him, and rolling off him into a crouch less than a meter from the closest thug. She sprang up, ramming her helmet into his chin and knocking him backward off his feet and into the guy behind him. More pressed in, and Anansi was pushed backward into the wall. She felt a push bar against her back, leaned backward into it, and the door behind her opened, spilling her and the remaining thugs out into the small area behind the warehouse.

Anansi heard a noise to her left and ducked, barely avoiding a punch to her face. The guard who had been waiting outside that door tried to pull a handgun from his waistband, but Anansi grabbed his wrist and forced it back until he dropped the gun, and then punched him hard in the face. He fell to the ground, and she stumbled over him away from the doorway. She heard footsteps behind her and turned around to find a group of the thugs waiting.

"You losers just don't stop coming, do you?" she taunted, cracking her knuckles and grinning maniacally beneath her mask.

The thugs spread out around her before all charging at once. Anansi dodged the first one to reach her, putting her hand on his back and pushing him into the man behind her before using his momentum to spin around into a high kick to another thug's head. That thug dropped to the ground and she slipped though the opening and out of the circle. They turned to face her and attacked en masse again. Again she evaded, moving closer and closer to the corner of the building and the anonymity of the city beyond. A pair of thugs charged. Anansi dropped back a step, crouched, and threw the first one over her shoulder. She tripped the second and sent him sprawling to the ground. Both jumped to their feet again and retreated around the corner of the building. Anansi charged after them, only to skid to a stop when she reached the front of the warehouse and found a small army of thugs pointing rifles at her chest. The rifles all clicked as the thugs flicked the safeties off and prepared to fire.

* * *

_AN: I am fully aware that France has pretty restrictive firearm laws. Unfortunately, criminals don't actually _follow_ those laws…_


	6. Chapter 6

_AN: There is one chapter left after this one. After "Along Came Anansi" is fully published tomorrow, I will publish a couple more One-Shots in "An Adrienette Anthology" before starting to publish the sequel to this story, "A Jagged Ride with the Owl."_

_To anonymousfriend27: Naturally; Anansi is most definitely that kind of vigilante/hero!_

_To The Keeper of Worlds: Pretty much. We shall see how things progress between the Heroes and Lynchpin moving forward…_

* * *

"I'm telling you, Nino, this is getting to be _huge_! The vigilante has been investigating this for months, and she's found connections _everywhere_ in organized crime. And now we know that they have at least one mole in the police department… And they've got the Mkufu wa Wanyama. What's next? Are they going to be poisoning the water supply to make the city devolve into absolute chaos? And the vigilante 'doesn't want my help' with any of this!"

Nino squeezed Alya's hand, silencing her rambling fears. They were walking around an outdoor music festival by the Louvre, admiring the booths of band merchandise while listening to the current act's performance. Nino smiled and waved over to Marinette, who was sitting at a booth displaying a wide selection of her Kitty Section shirts.

"Relax, babe," he told her. "We have no idea if what they actually got really _is_ that Mookoo-thing or if it even does anything special even if it _is_ the real one. Besides, it sounds like this vigilante dude is on top of things with what happened yesterday. If she needs help, she'll let us know. But until that happens, there's no point worrying. Maybe the necklace at the police station being a fake is a good thing." Seeing her disbelieving look he quickly added, "Hey, I hate that they got what they wanted, too, but maybe since they _did_, they'll leave us all alone now, right?"

Alya sighed. "There's just something about this thing that doesn't feel right, you know? They stole a magic necklace. Why? And why send in that druggie who would either hurt a lot of people or fail spectacularly? Why not just claim to be the owner and take it from the zoo's lost and found, with no one the wiser? And who was behind it all? There are just too many unanswered questions."

"Maybe the answers will come eventually," Nino suggested. "For tonight, let's just have fun and listen to the music." He dragged her over to the second stage, where Kitty Section was setting up for their set. Adrien waved down to them from the stage and Nino catcalled back. As Luka and Juleka tuned, Nino pulled Alya close and they started dancing slowly to the music of the current band, which was just finishing their last song. They joined the audience in applauding when that song ended.

As Rose was getting ready to introduce Kitty Section to the crowd, Alya suddenly whipped her phone out, unlocked it, and stared at something on the screen. Nino glanced over to see her expression shift from interest to concern.

"What's wrong, babe?" he asked, leaning in closer.

She didn't say anything but simply angled the phone for him to see it better over her shoulder. It was an alert from the Ladyblog: a guest was streaming a video of a warehouse on the other side of the city. The video was being shot from one side of the warehouse. Through the warehouse windows they could see a group of men fighting a masked figure. Between the poor lighting and angle, however, they only caught a couple glimpses of the figure: just enough to make out a dark yellow full-body suit. "Is this the vigilante?" he asked her. "It kinda looks like her, but I can't quite tell from this distance. I didn't get much of a look last night, either."

"It's definitely her," Alya confirmed. "And look what's waiting for her outside the building."

Nino looked back and couldn't tell what Alya was seeing at first. Then he noticed a flash of light pan across the wall, followed immediately by another one. The lights stopped, and shadows cut across the building in front of the headlights.

"Wait, those are headlights, right?" Nino observed. "Reinforcements?"

"Yeah," Alya agreed. "And that's at least the third car to arrive. With the ones that just showed up, they've got to be planning a serious ambush."

Nino let out a low curse. "Should we call this in? King Monkey and Queen Bee are patrolling tonight, right?"

Alya nodded. "Yes, but… I can't just sit here and watch and do _nothing_! I have to do something!"

Nino put his hands on her shoulders and guided her out of the crowd to a more secluded area. She was shaking, her breathing fast, tears pooling in the corners of her eyes. He pulled her in close. "Shh," he whispered, rubbing her back. "I'm sure this vigilante knows what she's doing. I want to help, too, but it's not all on us."

"But she's there because of _us_! She's trying to track down the people who tried to hurt _our sisters_!"

"That's her choice," Nino told her. "You didn't tell her to go there. Why are you so…" Nino fell silent as her words finally sunk in. He took a closer look at Alya's tearstained face and thought back to the scene the previous night, the conversation that morning. Suddenly it all made so much more sense. He hugged her tight, put and arm around her shoulders, and steered her away from the stages and booths to find a spot where they could transform. "Ah. Right, let's go save your sister."

* * *

Carapace crouched a couple meters away from the roof's edge, staying low to keep his profile as small as possible. Rena Rouge lay on the roof next to him, watching the fight. So far Anansi seemed to be holding her own, despite the odds stacked against her. However, she still didn't appear to recognize the ambush they were maneuvering her into on the other side of the building in the warehouse's shipping yard. In the time it had taken for them to arrive and situate themselves on the warehouse roof, another couple SUVs of reinforcements had arrived, swelling the numbers in front of the warehouse.

"Please keep her safe," Rena Rouge begged, not taking her eyes off the scene below them.

Carapace put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed reassuringly. "I won't let anything happen to her," he promised. "Besides, if it weren't for her, I never would have gotten the miraculous in the first place. I owe her, and for more than just last night."

At that moment, a couple of the thugs fighting Anansi right at the corner of the building fled around the corner, and she charged around the corner after them, only to stop short at the sight of the ranks of men with rifles facing her.

"I think that's my cue, babe," Carapace muttered, racing forward and leaping from the roof in a single motion.

Carapace landed right in front of Anansi and brought his shield up simultaneously, an instant before the thugs opened fire. "Stay behind me," he shouted over the noice, bracing his shoulder against the shield. He felt Anansi's hand on his shoulder as she crouched behind him.

At such close range the barrage of gunfire threatened to deafen and disorient him, but Carapace gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and held the shield as steady as he could. He felt the shooters' aim adjust downward, below the shield and at his legs; not for the first time was he grateful that Wayzz had given his entire suit extra padding and armor. Even though regular bullets could not penetrate the miraculous suit, the padding still helped to dissipate the impact force. Just when Carapace thought he couldn't take any more of the gunfire, it stopped, replaced by the clicking of empty chambers.

Carapace roared and charged into the crowd of thugs, holding his shield in front of himself like a battering ram. An instant later, he heard Anansi follow behind him. As he reached the leading edge of the group, Carapace dropped low, braced, and pushed up as hard as he could. The shield caught the first couple thugs in front of him hard in the gut, knocking them off their feet and backward into the second row. He followed them into the crowd and swung his shield horizontally as hard as he could, striking another couple with the shield's edge. Anansi punched the first thug to the opposite side and they found themselves back to back, surrounded by the thugs.

"I don't suppose you have a _plan_ now, do you, Shelly?" Anansi growled.

"Don't worry," he retorted, surreptitiously glancing at the warehouse roof. The figure standing atop the roof nodded and raised her flute to her lips. "We've got everything's under control."

As if on cue, they were surrounded by flashing red and blue lights as a dozen police cars appeared to converge on the warehouse from all directions. Officers started jumping out of cars and lining up around the periphery of the fight.

Anansi gave him a look. "That's convenient. What happens now?"

Rena Rouge dropped down and landed softly between them. "Now?" she muttered. "We take them out before they figure out that's just a Mirage."

Rena Rouge dove into the crowd of distracted thugs, swinging her flute like a club. Simultaneously, Carapace raced into the group himself. He swung around and punched the thug to his left before ducking under a punch from another. His shield caught a swinging rifle, which he redirected to the side before sidestepping inside that man's guard and elbowing him hard in the gut. He used that man as a shield to protect his back from another blow before spinning around and throwing his limp form into another pair of thugs, knocking all three to the ground in a jumbled heap. Across the melee he could make out Anansi fighting three of the thugs by herself.

A couple of the attackers had managed to reload their rifles; Carapace saw them raising their arms and aiming at Rena Rouge's back. Without thinking, he slid his shield off his arm and threw it at them like a discus. The rim of the shield caught both thugs squarely in the back and knocked them face first into the ground. The shield itself deflected to land at Rena Rouge's feet. She glanced up at him in surprise as it landed.

Carapace turned back to the group surrounding him and raised his arms to protect his face. _I really owe Adrien one for making me take those karate lessons_, he thought, ducking under one attack, bobbing to the side, and striking the thug with his palm. He felt a breeze over his head as that thug fell down, and shifted directions quickly, catching the next thug with a chop and popping his knee out of joint. He caught a green blur in his peripheral vision and reached out to catch the shield that Rena Rouge had hurled back to him, jamming it home on his arm and raising it to block a blow in the same motion. Then he straightened up and looked around the warehouse yard.

The Mirage had finally been disrupted and vanished. However, those thugs who were still on their feet had started fleeing also. One by one the SUVs were pulling away from the warehouse, leaving a handful of their injured and unconscious companions behind.

"We did it!" Carapace whooped, looking around to find Rena Rouge and Anansi. He caught a quick glimpse of Anansi on the far side of the yard nudging an unconscious thug with her foot before his vision was completely blocked out by a head of red-brown hair and Rena Rouge was throwing herself into his arms.

"Thank you," she whispered, squeezing him tightly and leaning in for a kiss.


	7. Chapter 7

_AN: Look for another One-Shot in "An Adrienette Anthology" tomorrow and Wednesday. Thursday I will start publishing the sequel to this story, "A Jagged Ride with the Owl." I'm almost finished with the _other_ sequel to this story now, so that should be ready to publish as soon as "Jagged" is done. So potentially that's a new chapter every day for the next 3 weeks…_

_To The Keeper of Worlds: Glad you enjoyed it! Anansi will actually show up in the next 2 stories I publish (excluding Anthology one-shots); one of those is with Alya._

_To anonymousfriend27: Anansi's a _little_ more grateful than that… Also, the biggest difference between my stories and the series is that logic actually exists in this universe!_

* * *

Alya dropped to sit next to Nora on the warehouse roof, not far from where she and Carapace had set up originally. She let her legs dangle off the edge of the roof and leaned back on her hands, letting out a breath and rolling her neck in a circle. She could feel Trixx squirming in her shirt pocket while eating his cookie.

Nora broke the silence first. "Thank you," she said without turning her head, "for bailing me out tonight. I-I had no idea they had backup so close."

Alya looked over at her in surprise. "Did you really think I would just leave you?" she asked. "I had to come, especially when they were livestreaming the ambush on my own blog! I couldn't lose my big sister."

Nora was quiet for a minute "I'm sorry." It came out so quietly that Alya almost missed it. "I got cocky. I thought I was in control. And I nearly got myself killed." Alya didn't say anything, waiting for her to continue. She finally said, "I can see why you Heroes don't go anywhere alone. You and Shell Head make a pretty good team."

"Yeah," Alya agreed, smiling to herself and looking down at where Carapace was still standing over the prisoners, waiting for the police to arrive.

"Shell Head is the Ball Cap Kid, isn't he?"

Alya kept her expression somewhere between disinterest and mild curiosity. "What makes you say that?" she asked.

"You kissed him."

"I'm relieved your first assumption is that Nino's a hero and not that I'm a cheater!" Alya chuckled.

Nora gave her a look. "Don't play around on me, baby sis. I know you. You're too much of a good person to do that. You and Cappie are so lovey-dovey there's no way you would cheat on him and kiss some other dude, superhero partner or not."

Alya felt her cheeks redden a bit at the comment. But she smiled at Nora and nodded. "Yeah, he is. I guess it's fair for you to know his identity; he figured out who you were tonight, too, before we came to help you. He actually wants to thank you since you're the reason he received his miraculous. Back when you were Akumatized," she explained.

Nora nodded back. "Don't worry," she assured her. "Your secrets are safe with me."

"I know. Family looks out for each other, right?"

"Absolutely." Nora reached out and pulled Alya close, wrapping her in a tight side-hug.

Alya leaned into her sister's embrace. They sat quietly and watched the police van pull up and start loading the prisoners. "Nora," she began hesitantly, "can I tell the others about this _now_? We've seen what we're up against. We found out today that they've got people in the police department. From what you said, they control most of the organized crime in the city. Who knows how far this goes? The Heroes of Paris have resources and connections to fight this. Please, let us help you!"

Nora shook her head. "Thanks for the offer, little sis. But I'm the one who uncovered this conspiracy. I need to track it down on my own."

Alya sighed. "Fine. But if you ever need backup, you know where to find me."


End file.
